1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an article dispensing apparatus, and more specifically, to an article dispensing apparatus that is used for vending machines that sell articles such as canned beverages and PET-bottled beverages and discharges articles stored in article storage passages as appropriate.
2. Related Art
In vending machines that sell articles such as canned beverages and PET-bottled beverages, an article storage rack has been conventionally provided in an article storage inside a main body cabinet as a vending machine main body. The article storage rack has article storage passages extending in an up-and-down direction and article discharging apparatuses arranged at the lower part of the article storage passages.
The article discharging apparatus includes a lower pedal and an upper pedal. The lower pedal and the upper pedal are linked with an AC solenoid as an actuator via links and advance and retract to and from the article storage passage as appropriate through the energization of the AC solenoid.
In such an article discharging apparatus, in a standby state, the upper pedal is retracted from the article storage passage, whereas the lower pedal is advanced to the article storage passage. With this configuration, the lower pedal comes into contact with the lowermost article stored in the article storage passage, thereby preventing articles stored in the article storage passage from moving downward.
When a discharging instruction for an article is given, in the article discharging apparatus at the lower part of the article storage passage that stores therein a corresponding article, the AC solenoid is energized, whereby the upper pedal advances to the article storage passage via the link to come into contact with the second lowermost article, thereby preventing the article and articles stored above the article from moving downward. In addition, the AC solenoid is energized, whereby the lower pedal retracts from the article storage passage, only the lowermost article is discharged downward, and when the article slips through the lower pedal, the lower pedal advances to the article storage passage by the biasing force of a spring. After that, when the energized state of the AC solenoid is released to be a non-energized state, the lower pedal that has advanced to the article storage passage is prevented from retracting, and the upper pedal has retracted from the article storage passage, thereby returning to the standby state.
In the article storage rack, two article storage passages are generally adjacent to each other fore and aft, and the article discharging apparatuses to be used for the respective article storage passages are arranged at the article storage passages combined in a back-to-back manner. This article discharging apparatus requires an AC solenoid as a driving source for each of the combined article discharging apparatuses.
Given these circumstances, to reduce manufacturing costs by reducing the number of driving sources, described is an article dispensing apparatus that combines article discharging apparatuses with the AC solenoid removed in a back-to-back manner, includes a driving source and a cam therebetween, and drives the respective article discharging apparatuses by the drive of the driving source and the rotation of the cam (refer to Japanese Patent No. 2749917, for example).